Thursday, December 12, 2013

Bad Contracts are the En Vogue Thing to Do

It's an Epidemic!

Seems like even the bad players are making big money nowadays. GMs around baseball are doling out millions to over-the-hill has-beens or never-weres. Fausto Carmona Roberto Hernandez , he of only 2 good seasons out of his 8 year career, got 1 YR/$4.5M from the Phillies. Clint Barmes, who's OPS hasn't cracked .600 the past 2 seasons, just re-upped with Pittsburgh for 1 YR/$2M. Michael Morse, a man who can't field and is coming off a .215/.651 campaign got 1 YR/$6M from the Giants. Juan Oviedo, who didn't even pitch last season got 1 YR/$1.5M from Tampa Bay. Rafael Furcal, who also didn't play last year, got 1 YR/$3M from the Marlins. Corey Hart, yet another that did not participate in 2013, got 1 YR/$6M from the Mariners. Oh, the madness doesn't stop there, as Felipe Paulino who didn't pitch in 2013 either, got 1 YR/$1.75M from White Sox. Phil Hughes, who's ERA has been 5.19 or higher in 2 out of the past 3 seasons, got 3 YR/$24M from Minnesota. Brendan Ryan, and his consistently plummeting OPS, got 2 YR/$5M from the Yankees. Joba Chamberlain got 1 YR/$2.5M from the Tigers despite ERA/WHIPs of 4.35/1.55 and 4.93/1.74 the past two seasons. Edinson Volquez, coming off a year where he pitched in 2 of the most pitcher friendly parks in baseball to the tune of a 5.71 ERA, landed a 1 YR/$5M deal with the cash strapped Pirates. And last, but not least, Derek Jeter got 1 YR/$12M from the Yankees, even though he'll be 40 next year and only played in 17 games last season.